America and How Good is Our God?

I'm flying to America on Tuesday! Hurrah!!! I'm really looking forward to seeing Steph again (and so soon - it almost seems normal to traverse the Atlantic to see my girlfriend), seeing friends (including Sarah Toth getting married) both old and new, and to spending some quality time in America. I can't wait, although for the first time ever I'm actually nervous of flying so far (my last flight home across the Atlantic consisted of three hours of deeply uncomfortable turbulence) and after the reception I got at US Immigration on my last visit (aggressive, disparaging questioning my the official) I'm not so keen on that. But other than that I can't wait for the land of the free and home of the brave. Its a brilliant country.

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I had a great Quiet Time today and it was brilliant. How good is our God and how good is it to meet with Him through prayer and His word? Marvellous.

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I'm applying for a job today which has produced within me a real sense of enthusiasm and excitement to go into the work place. Around 12 jobs in, its taken a while but its great. Its a graduate level position working for a publishing company in the Lake District. Wonderful! Books, education and the Lakes all-in-one.

Dodge Ram

I was sat at a petrol station today, patiently filling the car with fuel, and also admiring the huge Dodge Ram pick-up truck sat beside me. The Dodge Ram is, in case you don't know, a rather large vehicle that is normally found on the wide-open roads of the US of A, and is not readily available here (you have to import them and accept that it will be left-hand drive). There are a number of key features about the Ram to note:

• it is huge
• it has an enormous, not particularly sophisticated engine, usually a V8
• in keeping with a lack of sophisitication, the suspension and other key components of the Ram are noted for being a bit, shall we say, dated
• it has serious presence - ie its design makes it look muscular and tough
• it has character, and plenty of it
  

Now, with my usual European/British head on I look at the Ram (and other American cars) and think that it is a terrible car. The fuel economy is non-existent, its emissions rate is awful (something I wouldn't be too concerned about if it weren't for high-emission cars costing a fortune in tax), it lacks any of the technical expertise that I love in cars (my favourite cars - the Lotus Exige and Ferrari 360 - being packed with such gizmos and engineering genious), and it is a shouty car - in other words it really wants you to know its there. Baring that in mind I tend to think that anyone who still buys a car like that is a bit nuts, and frequently tell Steph this.

However, now is time for me to eat some humble pie. You see, even though all those things may be true (terrible fuel economy etc), I found myself fully understanding just why you would want one of those vehicles. As my last bullet point said, it has character - near endless amounts of character. Sure it would be awful to drive and expensive to run, and in this country would make you the scurge of dinner parties and neighbours alike (for one in demonstrating your 'indulgence' in destroying the planet), but it would put a huge smile on your face. Fill you with joy. Help you to escape some of the monotony of living in a world where anything that is not plain and confomist is fast becoming a bad thing. In other words you would own one just for the fun of it.

Before I finish though, a bit of a disclaimer. I am not here suggesting that you should find hope and joy in a car - that, for me, is only found in a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ - nor am I saying that sophisiticated technology, caution in buying and using things that are economical and produce fewer emissions are less worthy, and I am all for the moment when I can replace my Punto with a modest and highly economical vehicle. But I think it will be a said day when you simply can't buy, and may not even see, a vehicle as loud and brash as a Dodge Ram on the roads. It is a throw back to another age and we should be thankful for the choice to buy such a vehicle.

Heart and Soul

After a very enjoyable breakfast this morning with Danny and Dave, I decided to venture over to Sefton Park and enjoy a place that has so often been a refuge of peace and calm - a place I could meet with God and be reminded of him through creation.

However, I was in for a bit of a shock. You see, Sefton Park - along with most of Liverpool - is currently undergoing a major restoration of its traditional features. This is - at least in my opinion - a wonderful thing, as it should give vistors an incling of just how increadible this place was when it was first opened. And yet, at the moment, the Park looks like a bit of a disaster zone. Huge areas of open grass are sealed off to store heavy machinery. Most of the lakes and small ponds and rivers have been drained and are filled with rubble and clay from the building process. Large numbers of trees have been felled, and security fences are everywhere. As a result a great deal of the wildlife has quite understandably fled and what you are left with is an eerily dead place.

All of which is a bit sad really. The Park seems to have lost its heart and soul, the qualities that made it such a wonderful place to be. I always prefered Sefton to Calderstone Park because whilst obviously being a man made place it was one that was slowly being reclaimed by nature, a place that had a wild tint to it. Now, in part that was by design - it was designed to be like that - and as such I'm sure that when its finished it will regain that wilderness touch, only with more magnificent pieces of sculpture and art, deeper and cleaner lakes, and better facilities. Which as I've said is great. But yeah. Right now its a strange place.

It did make me think though. The Park has lost something. Its lost its heart and soul and it is baring its messy foundations for all the world to see. And yet, this is all necessary to make it a better place in the end. Is this not the case with us too? Is it not so that there are times in our lives when our innermost thoughts and ways are laid bare, that we are exposed to pain and anxiety and sorrow, times when we too lose something - perhaps a joy, or a hope? And yet, are these not the very same times when God builds us up and creates something new within us?When He replaces false joy and hope with a joy and hope that comes from a belief in Him, when He grounds us in prayer and studying the Bible, changes us and molds us according to His perfect will. And yet do we not despair and seek to flee from the quiet and pained moments in life?

Just something to think about.

(P.S. Somethings don't change though - I still had a random friendly squirrel climb up on to my arm. Bizarre.)

University

I've written about University on here before, though it has of course generally been in the form of frustrations regarding my thesis, or thinking back with great fondness about the friendship and fellowship that being at Uni has furnished me with. This post however is going to be something different. Its going to be the first critical analysis I've yet written about Uni and its pros and cons in my life.

Firstly the pros. Well, Univeristy certaintly achieved for me the great awakening of my mind - so to speak. Academically it challenged my preconceptions, introduced me to wide-ranging topics and ideas that I could never have encountered if not in that context, challenged me to challenge those who before hand I certainly regarded with a certain amount of deference or even awe. In a spiritual sense too it transformed my life, allowing me to explore and then grow and grow and grow into a true faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, a faith which now is the central tennet of my life. Without Univeristy it is hard to see how that faith would have come about.

Uni also gave me access to a world of friendship, fellowship and lessons in life which have blessed me so incredibly. Indeed, in many cases the use of the word world is significant there as I have been able to meet and live with people from all over this planet of ours, absorbing culture, learning about nations and traditions that if I'd remained in St Helens prob wouldn't have happened at all, or at the very least would have taken forty years or more to occur. Amazing! Through CU, church and living in Hallville I have been blessed with incredible, life-long friends, times of great laughter, excitement, exploration as well as many experiences that at one time I imagined would be available to me only via tv or books.

Finally, it was through Uni that God blessed me with a relationship with Steph. For that, and for so many other things I give thanks to God for my six years at University.

But of course, there are definately cons, though they are cons that I don't think the University is in itself to be blamed. University, for all its wonders, for all that it provides acadmically and relationally, is a bubble, a bubble that protects those attending Uni from the outside world. Now, I am speaking here of my University experience (Liverpool), of my course (history), and what you mind find in the UK system. I realise that if you did a vocational course, went to a different Uni, or went to Uni in the US then it is in many ways very different. But I think for many who go to Uni, you live in a world that furnishes you with so much academically and skills wise, but then effectivly dumps you out at the end thoroughly unprepared for what comes next. Indeed, what I am finding is that in the 'real world' you find yourself poorly qualified for even the most basic positions, and because University brings together people from everywhere, if you leave then you find your close friends are no longer as close as you would like.

In essence you emerge from Uni unqualifed, unskilled and without good support and friendship, at least as the 'real world' sees it. My uncle used to tell me this all the time, namely that 'Uni is a waste of time that graduates are a load of rubbish' and I used to get frustrated with that. I still do to be honest, the bit about graduates being a load of rubbish especially. But he is right in that I don't think Uni is what we are told it is going to be. University is sold as the means to achieve whatever you want in life. No uni, no prospects. And yet it just isn't. Not anymore, not right now. I'm not saying that I am disadvantaged from going to Uni - that would be self-pitying nonsense that is in itself a lie - but I am saying that the blessings that I have been given at Uni seem to have no meaning to those who run the world as we know it right now and that is exceptionally disheartening.

What I must do though is remember this. God is sovereign. He blessed me in sending me to Liverpool, blessed me in so many areas of my life while I was there, and He will continue to guide me in whatever way He sees fit in the future. And from that I can give thanks that I have been to University.

Taking Stock

Phew! As I write this I am a little shell-shocked to be honest. Steph has just left - well, when I say just it was about four hours ago that I last bade her fare-well and she boarded a plane to go back to the US of A - and I now sit a bit lost, having just lost my central purpose for the last few weeks (spending time with Steph) and contemplating having no upcoming deadlines or trips to take. Tis strange.

Its been a busy few weeks though, and by and large a great few weeks. The run up to Steph's arrival had been a bit crazy in its own right - a major and much needed spate of decorating consuming all before it and sending any semblence of a life-style into a bit of a spin, and a new beginning of a sort with an intro to some volunteering I shall be doing whilst looking for work. Steph arrived almost two weeks ago exactly, and since then its been a bit of a whirlwind. We have been blessed with some great trips out - to the Lakes, the Peaks, Wales, Liverpool, and of course, St Helens - as well as great and unexpected times of friendship and fellowship (hanging out with the mighty Moll before his marriage and move to London, catching up with the Big Baby, spending some quality time with the Gotts, and my parents). Then of course there was the big event - the meeting of Moll and Charlton to result in the Molls - which really was a great day down in Crewe (well, two days to be honest). On top of that there were films - Prince Caspian, Hancock and the stupendous Wall-E at the cinema and then a multitude of DVDs at home, coffee and less fun, a big English Heritage application.

All in all a huge amount of stuff and nearly all of it great and also sooooo tiring. And yet now I sit with Steph leaving again, unclear as to when we will next see each other, friends leaving Liverpool, myself in St Helens and the world seems a lot lonelier again. Strange days these are that we live in.

The Pace of Change

Perhaps, dear reader, you would agree that we humans like things just so when we desire them to be just so. In other words we want what we want, when we want it, as we want it. Of course, nothing says that this fulfillment of our perfection is going to be the case, and indeed the Bible teaches us that this world, because of sin, will forever be filled with pain and disappointment, especially if we are chasing goals that are not of God. And yet everywhere you look, people, including ourselves, will always be disappointed that our new house isn''t ready as we want it to be, or that our new car is not ready on time, or that new job hasn't gone through yet, etc, etc.

I was thinking about this today as I happened to be walking through a local council estate, a place familar to me from childhood and a place that was no doubt built in the 1960s as a social utopian paradise that would transform peoples lives from the outset. Now, taking for granted that anything other than God will never really and trully transform peoples lives, and regarding the council estate as at best improving peoples lives, something obviously went wrong in this particular estate. By no-means a complete disaster, the place lacks a soul and still bares the hallmarks of a community that lacked any real imagination or true individual thought. It is in many ways a literal transference of a handful of peoples vision of what would make a good place to live and is almost Soviet in its uniform nature. And yet, here and there, elements of individual thinking are emerging in the estate. Private enterprise is springing up. Scultpture can be found in assorted places. Some houses, no longer owned by the council, have a distinctive theme - one even resembled a traditional Japanese house. Furthermore a local church is now a hive of social improvement.

These significant changes were apparent today as, when I was a good deal younger (20 years folks) I wandered this estate and even then it was painfully clear things were in a bad way. Private enterprise was almost completely lacking, houses were uniform in the look to the last and sculpture was a strange foreign thing. Now, what i'm getting to here of course is that when as a 5 year I was looking in on this estate, many others were highly disappointed that the estate was such a failure. That the social improvement so craved had not materialised. And yet, twenty years on many improvements have slowly taken place that mean that at least I can certainly envisage this desolate council built community eventually have a unique and distinctive character all of its own. It can become a place that perhaps improves the condition of life. It just takes time. Time for new and different ideas and imputs. Time for problems to be indentified and solutions to be found, tried and implemented. Of course, things can get worse too - so in this case one of the local schools has closed and some shops have vanished - but overall it takes time for the soul of such a development to materialise, for the human hopes and dreams to come about. After all, perhaps one of the most amazing places I have ever visited in Britain is the city of Oxford a place that whilst now embodying so much culture and learning, at one point no doubt was a place of drearisome despair.

My point in this? Well, humans like things to be perfect and we want perfection immediately. But how much more would we understand and appreciate, with thanksgiving to the Lord, what we have, if we accept that perfection is impossible in that light, and that it might just be better for us that changes do take place over time. Firstly it gives more glory to God in his uncomparable perfection. Secondly it allows us to grow and learn and saves us from the pain of other peoples inevitable folly, by ensuring that at best only part of their notion of perfection and utopia is ever envisaged.

The Pit

I read a psalm the other day which, in describing God, commented that he 'redeems your life from the pit.' This is but one of many wonderous and indescrible acts of love, but how wonderful a statement that is, that the Lord God overlooks our many inadequacies and folly's because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and seeks to lift us out of the pit. The pit - what a great word. A word conveying a place that instantly identifies us with a place or environment that is not going to be pleasant. Even as I write this post the first thing that comes to mind when i think of a pit is a cess pit, the oldest and most traditional form of waste extraction. Nice!

Of course, the scary thing about that pit is that it might not be at that level of extremity. It might not be a cess pit. It could just be a depression in the ground. A place that is blatantly not on the higher ground that God might want us to be upon. A circumstance and surrounding that is not the straight path that comes from following the Lord. And yet when it is not a cess pit and when it is just a slight depression, surely that is the most dangerous place. In those circumstance we may not have even noticed that we are in a pit, and we continue on oblivious to the fact that we are in danger, not even stopping to cry out to the Lord for rescue.

I'll change tack here for a second as I am very aware you might be confused with my topographical nonsense above. The pit of course is not necessarily a place - although it might be if you fall down a big hole in the future and plead with the Lord for rescue. Hoping that that is going to be exceptionally unlikely though, in the vast majority of cases the pit is a comment on the state of our lives, and often our spiritual lives. The pit could refer to our feeling or perception when times seem exceptionally difficult. Unemployment, loss of a loved one, illness, rejection, etc etc etc. It could also refer to the simple and plain fact that we have slipped and slided to a point spiritually were we are so convicted of our guilt and seemingly trapped by our sin and folly that we struggle even to look to the Lord for hope. We are blinkered, lost and depressed by our surroundings. Surroundings that look like an inescapble pit rather than the straight path we should be on.

So in this spiritual/daily lives sense, the pit is a place of despair. The pit I referred to above, that of very difficult circumstances or severe spiritual backsliding, is perhaps best translated into the the cess pit. A place where we know whole heartedly we are in trouble and all we can do is scream out to God and ask Him to lift us. The minor depression in the land though is much more tricky. This could be manageable, continuous stress that is slowly eating away and causing us illhealth of poor relationships, or a job or lifestyle which although not demonstrably bad is keeping us from God's straight paths. Spiritually it could be that we are neglecting our Bibles or prayer and that slowly but surely we are sinking into the ground. This is scary as before we know it we can be in that huge, slimy pit of despair (the cess pit) but having massively damaged our own lives, hurt others and succeeded only in not obeying God.

Having said all that, the one wonderful thing to take from all this topological stuff is this plain and simple truth - that the Lord God in his loving, perfect way, will lift you out of the pit, whatever pit it may be, and place your feet firmly on solid ground. How wonderful and joyous is that? And the shrewd amongst you will realise that its exactly how this blog post began - meaning that you can leave out all the stuff in the middle. Brilliant! :-)

Encounters with a Fairy Ogre

I'll try to keep this brief as even I may have to concede my blog entries have a tendancy to delve into waffle at the mo. I've spent most of today sorting through clothing and equipment that I used this last weekend camping in the Lakes. Almost all of it was damp, wet or saturated which should give you an idea of just how wet it was these last few days. But what great days they were.

A group of us celebrated Andy Moll's stag weekend with a meal in Liverpool on Friday and then two short days in the Lake District, walking, camping and eating and drinking in the Buttermere area. It rained a lot and there were moments when the wind was so vicious it was hurling our neighbours tents across rivers and bringing down trees that later blocked at least one of the roads out of the valley. And yet, even with such terrible weather it was a great weekend of friendship and fellowship, and I hope, a suitable way to mark Andy's tranisition from a life sans Beko to a new married life.

It really was a great weekend.

Time and Commitments

One of the things I find hardest in the world we live in is just how hard it can be to use time effectively. Before I go on, I realise and appreciate that there are ways in which we can discipline ourselves to better use the time we are given. Making the choice to not watch television and study your Bible for example. Or choosing to get out of bed on a Saturday morning rather than lye there for another few hours. These are but a few examples. However, I hope that it is acceptible to say that inspite of our best efforts there are still moments in which the precious time God gives us slips away into oblivion, or becomes almost inpossible to manage in a way that satisfies what is being asked of us.

And it is on that point - using time to satisfy commitments in our lives - that I now turn. Very often in life (although much less so at the moment) I find that I am in positions which require me to make a firm commitment. To stand up and say 'I will be there' or 'I will do that'. Very often these may be commitments to people we care about, and equally often we may have to make a decision between different people or groups of people that are important in our lives. This is when it gets messy, not least when other external factors that are beyond our control come into play.

Making a commitment is important and failing to do so can be hurtful and frustrating to others and falls short of being a good witness to friends and family. At the same time however making a commitment in haste or in the knowledge that we might not be able to follow through is equally risky and foolish. Thus it is that using our time wisely and both making and keeping our commitments is a very difficult business at times and one that I know leaves me troubled.

My friend Bill

Having recently demolished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, i've now started reading a book I bought recently by Bill Bryson. Entitled, rather simply, Shakespeare (a title that should leave little imagine to what its about in a loose sense), I'd first eyed it up a few months ago in the bestseller list at Tesco, but held off buying the book as I had so many others to read and wanted to be careful about money and how much I was spending. Anyhoo, having cleared a few books and seeing it again in a delightful little bookshop in Grasmere in the Lakes, I decided to buy Shakespeare.

Now, as much as I do have at least a passing interest in England's most famous bard, I bought this book mostly because it was by Bill Bryson. Indeed, it would be safe to say that I have been a Bryson fan for a long, long time, and the mere addition of his name to a book will be enough for me to at least give it great consideration as book to buy and read. His books A Walk in the Woods and Notes from a Big Country would both easily make it on to my top ten favourite reads, whilst I find the vast majority of his other works both interesting and engaging. Certainly his autobiographical The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid seemed a little lacking and a bit disappointing, but even that had its moments of sheer joy and brilliance.

The reason I like Bill Bryon books boils down to a few key points. First of all he is a man who is very obviously a bit of a geek - like me. He is a dedicated, capable researcher and passionate student about all kinds of subjects. He seems to love information, learning, researching and covers a whole range of subjects (as displayed generally in the boggling amount of information he crams into his travel books, and more specifically in his History of Nearly Everything science book and the English language studies such as Made in America) and in adopting this position, having this attitude to learning, he is a man after my own heart. I too love consuming information, researching and do this in a variety of subject areas.

Secondly, he seems to have a very balanced, considered approach to his research. Certainly his opinion and persepctive shine through in all his work, but at the same time I do feel reassured that he is at least open to the possibility that he is by no means right. He has humility and a determined belief to consider many angles. This I respect immensly.

Thirdly, he is an American who loves America and Britain equally, has lived in both countries, and is married to a British woman. He is, therefore someone who shares the strange transatlantic world that I seem at this moment to be living.

Fourthly, he has a passion for the outdoors, for the culture and heritage he sees around him and an equal passion to preserve that culture and heritage. He has the American links, the interesting learning and history, language etc etc. In other words we seem to have many common interests and that obviously helps engage you in reading books.

Fifly, he has a writing style that manages to convey all that information in a way that is very much likeable and approachable to people who might otherwise find the topic dull and/or beyond them. His work on science A Short History of Nearly Everything was a joy to read in the way it helped explain and relate the most complex of scienftic theories. And best of all you are never more than a few pages away from honest, open, humble humour.

These are the reasons I like Bill Bryson books and the reason I am now reading a book on Shakespeare. Go buy a Bill Bryson book today and put a knowledgeble smile on your face.

Great Picture

This is a great picture, even if I do say so myself. Something about it, the colours, the sheer raw nature of the wood and the metal together, all help me appreciate it more than I would another picture. It is, in case you were wondering, part of an old medieval door from a stately home in sunniest Lancashire.

Space Loos

I haven't written on here for a while, a sign, perhaps, of the fact that I've been in the Lakes for a week and also been somewhat distracted with life.

However, I feel an entry is needed and what better than to talk about the rather bizarre world of the space programme (the global space programme) and its sheer oddness. You may have seen in the news recently that the International Space Station has been experiencing lavatory troubles. It seems that the $100 billion space station is equipped with only one toilet, a somewhat surprising oversight (especially given its remoteness if anything goes wrong), and one that prompted an unprecedented plumbing emergency this week, as said waste extractor broke.

Back on earth Russian engineers hurridly prepared the urgently needed replacement parts (the ISS is of course a mixture of global technologies), which were then loaded onto a plane, flown over to Florida, rushed through US customs in a diplomatic bag (thus avoiding the pitfalls of long customs delays), taken to NASA, who then set about stripping the space shuttle (which was due to launch on a seporate mission) of non-essential items so as to accomodate the toilet bits'n'bobs. At which point the shuttle lifted off, docked with the ISS, and an engineer successfully repaird the loo. Joy of joys!!!

A successful and staggeringly complex operation to fix a toilet. An expensive one too, coming in at some $450 million. For a toilet! Amazing.

Swivelling Seats

A story unfolds before us, slowly but surely light is shed on a mysterious object. Music begins, light hearted, jolly, moving us along in this tale. Suddenly the spotlight falls upon the swivelling chair and dvd player in the centre of..... the car!!! Amazing. Astonishment follows as the music stops being soft and going into a bit of frenzy. A pause ensues and then the razzle dazzle wonder amazing guitar rift kicks in and the story ends.

Hazaah!! All of a sudden all your problems are at an end, the solution of life is clear. A car with swivelling seats and a dvd player. Its so simple you are amazed you didn't think of it before. The kids will be amazed. The sky will always be the most techincolour blue you could ever imagine, and the grass greener than green. All because you bought the car with the swivelling chair and dvd player.

This is of course the story of modern advertising, no longer selling a product on the product itself but on how it makes you feel, on the association you will have with it. The advert I am alluding to here is a particularly one for a car thats circulating at the mo which has as its main selling points a swivelling chair and a dvd player, but there are others. For instance I was particularly gripped and almost sold on how a mobile phone would improve my mood, not because of the phone, but because the phone was shown with laughing people and beautiful scenery.

Modern advertising is scary in its ability to sell us the solution to life in the form of a materialistic item. I'm not rallying against captialism here. I actually really quite like capitalism and my materialistic objects. Its just scary to think people actually think (myself included) that we will find satisfaction in a car or a phone alone, and that comes from associations with things that having little to do with the phone, things that often are gifts from the Lord or reveal his glory. All harnessed for a marketing campaign. Crazy.

Dynamo

I've been struggling a bit of late. Meeting with God in prayer and reading my Bible has been more of a hurdle than a desire and as such i've been avoiding the hurdle quite successfully - sadly.

As a consequence of this of course, i've been struggling with other things. Today its back to jobs again. I seem to have no focus, look at jobs and see only a bleak abyss, and am just generally a bit downcast. I did watch an episode of Band of Brothers yesterday in which one of the characters remarked that a particularly bleak situation they were all in seemed to have no end, and this is the key bit, at least as far as they could see. Later in the episode an unforseen development resolves their dilema, and this made my heart leap knowing that as long as I trust in God and keep chipping away things will happen that will help resolve the job situation, amongst others, that right now I cannot even contemplait.

For the moment though I am struggling to bring things before the Lord whilst I feel a bit like I have a huge creative dynmo lurking inside me, spinning away and seeking to explode in a fit of productivity, and yet, for the moment I have very little to do - or at least it seems that way.

Tales of Endurance

I finished a book today. In itself thats not entirely a blog worthy event, and, especially now that I am post-thesis and pre-employment, I have been reading quite a bit more than I did in the past. But, the book I finished was so facinating, so vast in its topic, that I decided to give it a bit of mention on here.

Entitled 'Tales of Endurance' and written by a chap called Fergus Flemming, it sets out in the form of short chapters to tell the tale of western exploration over a period of around 700 years. However, accepting that that would require a massive study and write up the like of which would take 20 years to read, let alone write and research, Flemming hand picked a veritable who's who of exlporers and their exploits and set about producing a handy 600 page (thereabouts) journey from Marco Polo in the late thirteenth century to the fateful exploits of the Italian led airship expedition that set out to discover vast swathes of the Arctic in the 1920s.

And I was gripped for the entire journey. Flemming opened my eyes and introduced me to new and unknown figures, whilst joining the dots and providing the missing pieces of the tales and lives of well known historical personalities, such as Scott and Shakelton. It was a journey that ranged from the frozen wastes of the Arctic and Antarctic, to the searing heat of Sahara dessert, taking in epic mountain and jungle treks as it went. It was a grim adventure, men and women battling through immense difficulties and harsh conditions, only to die from run-ins with the locals, scurvy, exposure, and starvation to name but a few maladies. On many occasions though it was also a tale of people overcoming those maladies and escaping hopeless situations, and although Mr Flemming was not entirely enthusiastic about this point, so so many of these men and women battled on seeking and trusting in the Lord. Amazing!

It was also filled with interesting little bits here and there, the three that amused me the most being:

a. Thomas Jefferson believed that native americans were actually a lost tribe of Welshmen!!
b. Mount Everest, which we pronounce Ev-rest, should actually be pronounced Eve-rest (as in Adam and Eve).
c. The main motivation for the first British expeditions to climb Everest was to build character.

Great book.

Demise of A Computer

For the second time in the history of this blog I'm writing about the demise of a computer. Most specifically my laptop, which, after two and a half years of faithful service (well maybe two years and nine months to be more exact) has almost died. I say almost as it will still work tentatively under battery power as long as the fan doesen't kick in. If the fan does kick in its all over but it is still just about continuing.

Anyhoo, I am thankfully writing from a new shiny model, which thanks to the wisdom of John Knight and the immense generosity of my parents and great aunt Ed, is working well and beginning to usurp the functions of its predecessor.

I hope that I don't seem all materialistic writing about what is ultimately a material object. Rather I am writing as its a poigniant thing in this technological age when a laptop goes awry. Facebook and MSN are, sadly, crucial to me remaining in touch with the wider world right now, while job hunting takes place on my trusty laptop, and its an essential impliment for helping me and Steph to stay in touch with each other. So a laptop becomes far more than an object, it becomes a medium to a much wider world.

And more than that, theres a certain sentimentalism to my old laptop. It essentially bore the brunt of a massive thesis research project and write up (and I do mean massive - the keyboard was pummelled), held literally tens of thousands of photographs, was also a medium of communication, and more recently provided a key lifeline to Steph and acted as an entertainment centre to help me through nights of spiritual attack. It did a lot in other words, and silly as it seems it is a bit sad to see it consigned to the rubbish pile.

Perhaps you think i'm crazy for being sad and sentimental about a laptop but its been a trusty material object.

Democracy

I can feel a little buzz inside me right now. As I type I'm watching BBC News 24 with my Dad and Boris Johnson has just been elected Mayor of London. Over the space of the last two days the Conservative Party has just won a very substantial proportion of the local election vote nationally and can now lay claim to the London Mayor.

Now, before I go on here. This is not a big, lavish pro-Conservative post. I do have a certain tendancy to support the men in blue these days, but this is not an Conservative fan club, nor does their victory specifically leave me with a buzz.

Rather, I feel that with the Conservatives registering a level of success and Labour apparently in a slump, politics and the political process is coming alive a little. Sure, I still live in a place where I can pretty much gurantee my vote counts for nothing unless I vote for Labour, but it aint half interesting when the government no longer seems all powerful, all sweeping, as it did most recently under Tony Blair. Now it seems that the voter, the average man and woman on the street has some influence with the peeps in London and that we aren't a mere commodity that is easily ignored.

To recognise that fact makes me all the more thankful that the Lord has blessed this country in so many ways. To be in a land that inspite of all the ways in which we seem to be in decline gives its people the ability to influence their government is a great joy. I was in the polling station yesterday and while it was obvious that the turn out would be verging on the pathetic and that the place was deserted I was so thankful that I could go in and vote, aided by two friendly assistants and not face oppression and intimidation. It is a great blessing.

So, there you go. Democracy. Not perfect, and not sure to solve things we want to be solved, but it is a blessing from the Lord.

The Cliff

Like most Christians, I frequently find myself confronted by the problem of sin. Be it the sin in my own life that God reveals to me in my daily walk, or in being reminded of the sinful human heart in the Bible, it is a regular, and frustrating feature of life. And because it is so frustrating and regular I tend to end up applying analogies to the problem of sin. Heres one to consider.

Imagine, if you will, that our lives on this earth are essentially an exercise of moving from one side of a mountain to the other. Our daily experiences and activities ultimately amount to fulfilling the objective of getting from A-B and all the highs and lows involved in life can be seen in the context of being immersed in bad weather or climbing various inclines (depression, stress, exhaustion), or taking in breathtaking views, feeling the warmth of the sun on our face, and spending time with companions who might be joining us on the walk (joy, laughter, peace, contentment, encouragement). Its a simple analogy but I hope its making sense thus far.

Now imagine that we have multiple choices of routes for getting over the mountain. As a Christian, God, who promises to make all our paths straight, has provided us with a very clear path that leads over the peak and presumably to point B. It is mostly well marked and paved and is on solid ground, although it still seems to climb steeply in places and looks both long and dull. And yet, as Christians we know it to be God's path and that is the right thing to do. In our lives following God's path would be seeking His wisdom and understanding and guidance in our life, through prayer and studying his word and even in attending and being involved in a church. Its simple then. We know God's path is right and we should follow that.

However, here in comes the problem of sin. Sin in this case involves being lured or decieved into taking the wrong path, or leaving the path entirely, to follow a different way. In many ways this may seem like the wise decision to us. We may follow a path along the mountain that seems more substantial or clear, that seems shorter or avoids the more perillous outcrops of rock that God's path leads over. In other words it seems better and indeed seems better and still runs closely to God's path, if at first. Thus we follow that path but before we know it the path that seemed better has veered ever more sharply away from God's path and we are now scrambling along cliffs fearing for our lives. Sound familiar? And this is the path that tricks us into a positon that is not right with God.

Even more frustrating is the moment when we are walking firmly along God's path and then all of a sudden we glance to one side and see not only a magnificent view but also some great rocks to clamber over. Sadly, we know that the view and the rocks are perilously close to a very dangerous cliff and that we really shouldn't leave God's path, and yet, even though we may have learned from previous experience that it is supreme folly to be lured in by the view and the rocks, we leave the path and ever more venture into what seems wonderful. Of course, the Devil and our own foolish hearts tell us more and more that what is foolish is actually fun and amazing and we end up closer and closer to the cliff edge and then - crash, bang, ouch!

You fall down the cliff and cling on helpless, hurting, lost, afraid, knowing that you should have stayed on God's path. Frustration, sadness and lonliness take over.

Of course, this is yet another mountain analogy from a mountain man, but you could equally change the mountain journey to one crossing a city. God provides a safe, well lit street to help you get from one place to another. But for the sake of convenience, time, or through laziness we try to take even the smallest short-cut and end up in a dark, scary back ally. Or, as with the view and the rocks we are lured into a part of town that is most definately dodgy and suddenly find ourselves facing a gang or some other peril.

Thankfully, as frustrating as it is to know that as sinful, foolish people we will make the mistake of leaving God's path, how wonderful is it to know that Jesus is the ultimate friend, companion and rescuer? Be he the mountain rescue worker who not only pulls you up but also heals your every ache and then helps you be planted fimly back on his path, or the policeman and councellor who rescues you from the inner city peril, he trully is a loving, wonderous, awesome God.

Dreams Gone By

Thinking about direction as much as I have recently its surprising (to me at least) that I've only just got around to paying any attention to where I had envisioned myself in years gone by. So here is a somewhat clouded record of where I thought I would be.

1. Youth - Well, by youth I mean aged 3-16, but you can include a variety of careers in that from astronaught and submariner, to architect, engineer, racing driver, fighter pilot.

2. High School - Here it got a bit more compicated but I was still thinking fighter pilot and architect.

3. Sixth Form - By this point I made choices of subject that plunged me firmly down the line of politics, history and geography. If anything I was drawn most to geographical careers. Vulcanology, meteorology, hydrology. All of these I found facinating and it seemed like a great idea to think about a career in one of those. However, one bad exam result (which it turned out eventually was very much a one off) and the need to apply for Uni before I knew my overall result led to me applying for history.

4. Uni - So as I started Uni I was a history student and knew only that I would like to leave Uni with a good job, well paid, probably in government. Even having become a Christian that idea of a well paid government position stayed firm in my mind and as I entered my last year I was all for working for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in an embassy somewhere. And yet, before I knew it God was working in my heart and changing my career direction all in one. Certainty was replaced by doubt and I was led into my masters degree.

5. MPhil - I began my MPhil thinking that it would lead into a PhD and ultimately academia. And yet, through circumstances no-one could envisage it all of a sudden became a simple MPhil and once more my immediate future seemed in doubt. More and more as I grew as a Christian the doubt grew, until it began to be shaped into a clear belief in serving God. This took the path at first of applying for the Relay training scheme, only for that door to be closed as I became overwhelmed with an MPhil that was far more of an undertaking than I could ever have imagined. And that brings me to now.... continuing to desire to serve God but trying to determine how best to do that.

The only certainty through all of this is that God has changed my perspectives and desires for the future in a way that 6 years ago I could not have forseen. In a way its been frustrating and difficult to see doors close and horizons seem impassible but its also exciting to know that God will and can continue to shape and mold me and my future.

The picture is from Calderstones Park, Liverpool.

Liverpool

Apparently my last post was my 200th. All very exciting, but I'm delighted I didn't try and dazzle you all with a glitzy, showy, wonder post to mark by bicentennial. Much better to write a line of my surprise here and move on.

Today has been a good day and inspite of waking up absolutely exhausted I was filled with a joyful thankfulness in my heart, praising the Lord. Great start! I then had some dinner and met up with Andy Moll in Liverpool which was an excellent follow up. Circumstance has brought to a halt what was a weekly time of friendship and fellowship in the past, so it was really good to catch up over a beveridge and then head into Calderstone Park for some photo taking.

And then, after Andy left, I decided to park the car in Allerton and essentially take advantage of the sunny weather to walk what was my regular walk when I lived there - down to Sefton Park and back. Which was also great. It trully is an amazing release to spend some time down there amongst God's creation, a fact that I was trully thankful for last year. I can't tell you the number of times that i ventured down there with my Bible to read God's word or simply to pray quietly to myself, and the number of times God granted me his strength and guidence. Of course, this time it was a little different. Knowing that Sefton and the streets leading up to it are such important places in my past made it exceptionally strange to know that I don't live there anymore and that it isn't really the place thats most at hand when I would like a breath of fresh air. Not wanting to lament too much, it was actually a little sad, especially thinking of all the friends that have come and gone and are leaving soon too.

But, my walk today did allow me to dwell upon some wonderous truths about the Lord and to appreciate his awesome and wonderous sovereignty not just in my life but also my friends. He trully is an incredible, loving, faithful God and the sadness of moving on is undoubtedly equalled and surpassed by the excitement of trusting and seeking after the Lord as He guides us into the future.